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Synology made NASs are one of the more popular home appliances available. Some models are ARM based others Intel_x86. However most are considered pricey especially when there are opensource alternatives readily available that accomplish what the QNAPs/Synology of the world do if not better. The files below will allow you to install Synology's OS, called DSM, onto a regular PC so long as the your hardware is supported. I also provided VMware and VirtualBox images if you dont have a PC lying around to test with but would still like to see whats its like to run a Synology DiskStation in your home environment. Again, to install on 'real' hardware please make sure your hardware/nic/sata/scsi chipset is listed below or IT WONT WORK. The virtual image will run on top of either VMWare Workstation/ESXi or VirtualBox on any hardware you may have.

Disclaimer: This setup is for educational purposes only. NO guarantee is made that your data will be safe/protected should you use the files below to build your own appliance. I STRONGLY recommend you test your build before placing important data on the unit.

3. Insert USB into PC and power it ON. If you have a console(KVM) attached to the PC youll see machine coming up.

4. Launch Synology Assistant from your Windows workstation and click 'Search'. If you've done everything correctly you'll see a new 'DiskStation' has been found.

-- IMPORTANT -- Disconnect the USB flash drive from the computer for this next step.

5. Right-click the new 'DiskStation' and choose 'Install'. Browse and select the 'DSM_DS3612xs_2668.pat' file. Choose a Name for the DiskStation, a new default admin password and IP configuration. After installation is complete the DiskStation will reboot automatically. Power it OFF manually now.

-- INSERT USB Flash drive back into PC --

6. Power on PC. DSM will boot normally. Back to Synology Assistant click 'Search' again. Depending on the name and network config you chose during installation you will see now see a DiskStation has been found with the NAME you chose. The previous Installation Progress bar will show 100% complete and you can now access your DiskStation by opening a browser and pointing to the IP its configured with.

Notes:
For real hardware I've tested this build on an HP N40L I have access to and I'm very impressed with the performance. Compared to a 'real' DS1512+ I have sitting on my LAN for primary storage in my home I have to say this franken-unit performs much better. The DS1512+ comes with a limited(when compared to any PC) Atom CPU and only 4GB of RAM. While the Atom is sufficient for NAS duties I feel the CPU in the N40L far outperforms when faces with more cpu intensive tasks.

@ watchy:
Can you please describe the software/hardware you use for your NAS

Thanks

The packages link does work in the synology software.

I installed it on a HP N40L (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859107052) following his instructions. It is working perfectly. I have a DS1812+ that I upgraded to from the N40L. I do have the N40L upgraded to 8GB ram. The UI is speedier compared to the 1812+. Copying files to and from is about the same between the two (100-110MB/s over gig connection). I currently have a backup going from my real synology to my fake one. Once it does that I will pull and replace a drive to see if it rebuilds right.

Rebuild completed everything is working as expected. ~7hrs to rebuild a SHR Raid with 4 3TB Seagate drives. Tonight I will try to connect a drive to the 5th SATA port and see if I can expand the array.

Rebuild completed everything is working as expected. ~7hrs to rebuild a SHR Raid with 4 3TB Seagate drives. Tonight I will try to connect a drive to the 5th SATA port and see if I can expand the array.

5th SATA port does not show up. Maybe it will with the hacked bios for the N40L but not with the stock bios.

I saw this thread yesterday via TheBay's link. I am determining if I need to do this v/s go with FreeNAS. Any ideas? I have no clue what Synology is except knowing that it is a NAS appliance.

I've been running FreeNAS for several years now. It's been running great.
Easy to setup, web based interface, I run my FreeNAS server in a closet without a mouse, keyboard or monitor. It boots up from a 1gb Lexar Firefly USB flash drive- I have four 2-TB disks inside for a total of 5.4TB of storage (the fourth hard drive is for parity in case one of the raid disks fails). I've run three concurrent hi-def (mix of 1080p and 720p) streams from my server without a single hiccup or glitch. My server is based on a dual core AMD cup with 2gb ram and an intel Pro/1000 NIC. I couldn't imagine another free alternative being any easier to use, more reliable or more robust than FreeNAS has been.

“You cannot play God and then wash your hands of the things you created.”
– Commander Bill Adama

I've been running FreeNAS for several years now. It's been running great.
Easy to setup, web based interface, I run my FreeNAS server in a closet without a mouse, keyboard or monitor. It boots up from a 1gb Lexar Firefly USB flash drive- I have four 2-TB disks inside for a total of 5.4TB of storage (the fourth hard drive is for parity in case one of the raid disks fails). I've run three concurrent hi-def (mix of 1080p and 720p) streams from my server without a single hiccup or glitch. My server is based on a dual core AMD cup with 2gb ram and an intel Pro/1000 NIC. I couldn't imagine another free alternative being any easier to use, more reliable or more robust than FreeNAS has been.

I agree with you that FreeNAS is a great system, I am actually running one at work for file shares and as a back end for our local virtual servers. The web ui is functional but a bit confusing to someone who has never used something like it before. The synology UI is very user friendly and is easy to navigate (demo at http://www.synology.com/products/dsm_livedemo.php?lang=us). If someone were to build a UI like that on a ZFS system it would be killer.

I am very happy the OP was able to modify the DSM package to install on other hardware. If Synology would build the software to install on a machine I would gladly buy it.

I've been running FreeNAS for several years now. It's been running great.
Easy to setup, web based interface, I run my FreeNAS server in a closet without a mouse, keyboard or monitor. It boots up from a 1gb Lexar Firefly USB flash drive- I have four 2-TB disks inside for a total of 5.4TB of storage (the fourth hard drive is for parity in case one of the raid disks fails). I've run three concurrent hi-def (mix of 1080p and 720p) streams from my server without a single hiccup or glitch. My server is based on a dual core AMD cup with 2gb ram and an intel Pro/1000 NIC. I couldn't imagine another free alternative being any easier to use, more reliable or more robust than FreeNAS has been.

Same here. I have an old freeNAS 0.68 box with 4x160GB IDE Harware RAID drives with UFS on top. Been rock solid. I booted up every Friday, had all the PCs in the house rsync to the file server and all is well.

I had picked up the N40Ls over a year ago along with 4x3TB Seagate externals (Feb 2012) and finally getting around to provisioning the new file server with RAIDZ. Come to see this right in the middle of my testing etc so I figured I see if this is better. I have kicked off a copy of over 400GB on my new freeNAS box. Having some hiccups while copying but I am staying with freeNAS for now.

wow, I have been looking for a writeup like this for a long time, thank you! Very keen o try it! I have a 411j but feel that it is too slow.
But:

1. Do you still get the SHR "hybrid raid", or are the drives suddenly handled only by the N40L microserver?
Answer myself: Never mind, I see above that you mention SHR, good.

2. I guess updating the Synology the ordinary way is out of the question? How would we be able to update other than await a newer package from you? DSM 4.2 is out today for instance. Want!

3. The N40L, is Intel-compatible right? Thinking of the Plex plugin which only supports transcoding in intel based Synologys. The N40L has an AMD, I guess that will count as Intel based?

4. I get 5 drive support with the N40L and hacked Bios? Not 4+1 or anything like that, IE I can have 5 drives in one big raidset?

5. Do we know of any good way of extending the number of drives of the N40L, like an external SATA tower and a PCI-card? Just toying with the idea.

6. So the 1 Sata drive required, will that always be allocated for the OS and prohibit for storage use, or can you make a 5 drive hybrid raid from start?
Answer: Never mind, also now read that you mention 1 minumum, I'll read that as a 1-5 drive SHR.

I got this working on my old FreeNAS box. Just a generic intel motherboard, 4 gb of memory and some disks. Luckily it has an NVIDIA SATA chipset, Realtek 8169 network chip. Installing worked just as the OP said, but follow the directions precisely (especially when putting the USB stick in and out)

FreeNAS 8 was decent, but required some serious work on configuration. Also, I was able to get some plugins working with the "jail" working, but permissions were just a bear to keep straight. Also, never was able to get any DLNA server working. So much easier with the Synology software - really something to recommend to people who want a nice NAS.

I have had a issue or two with new packages not being recognized until a reboot. But, seems to be running smoothly now.

Thank you very much! I have been trying to implement FreeNAS on my old PC for quite a while but it has been very confusing. So far your instructions have been working great and I have a server going. Now need to figure out all the features of Synology.
Thanks again.

Help,please!! My installation stuck at the attached screen. I am using n40L microserver as suggested and my system is windows 7. I tried to boot from a UBS drive that was created in step (2).
20130307_213137.jpg 1106k .jpg file

Help,please!! My installation stuck at the attached screen. I am using n40L microserver as suggested and my system is windows 7. I tried to boot from a UBS drive that was created in step (2).
20130307_213137.jpg 1106k .jpg file

Try another USB stick- the smaller the better. I use the 1gb Lexar Firefly USB sticks for booting- larger drives sometimes have boot issues.

“You cannot play God and then wash your hands of the things you created.”
– Commander Bill Adama